Ex-principal of RG Kar Hospital held over ‘financial irregularities’
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a money laundering case against Ghosh and others based on the CBI probe.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday evening arrested former RG Kar Medical College and Hospital principal Sandip Ghosh over allegations of financial irregularities in the premier government facility during his controversial tenure.
The arrest of Ghosh – who faced a storm of public condemnation over lapses in the handling of the brutal rape and murder of a trainee doctor in the hospital on August 9 – fulfils a major demand by protesting medics.
Ghosh, who was questioned by the agency for the 15th day on Monday, was later taken to CBI’s Nizam Palace office where he was placed under arrest on charges of cheating and the Prevention of Corruption Act. Besides him, three people were arrested in the case on similar charges. Ghosh is accused of illegally using bodies for research, illegally selling biomedical waste generated in the hospital, and multiple financial irregularities such as extending favours to some firms without floating valid tenders.
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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a money laundering case against Ghosh and others based on the CBI probe. Kolkata Police has filed two first information reports against him.
This is the first arrest by CBI since it took over the investigation into the ghastly crime that has sparked sweeping protests across the country, though Ghosh’s arrest was in a related case, and not the main one.
A Kolkata Police civic volunteer, Sanjoy Roy, was arrested by the city police a day after the crime, and handed over to the central agency on August 13.
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“We are happy. But the cease work and protest will continue. We have other demands, including justice for the victim and resignation of Kolkata Police commissioner,” said a protesting doctor, as celebrations broke out at the protest site. Ghosh’s advocate could not be reached despite several attempts for a comment.
Ghosh, who was principal of the premier college before being removed last month, is at the centre of the protests against the state government’s handling of the crime. But his arrest came not in the rape and murder case, but another case where CBI registered an FIR on the directions of the Calcutta high court on August 13.
On August 19, the Bengal health department set up a four-member special investigation team (SIT) to probe the allegations of financial irregularities. On August 20, the Kolkata Police registered two FIRs against him.
Ghosh, however, told CBI that he was not in the hospital when the body of the trainee doctor was found and that he was informed over the phone.